In Times Past: 23 - 30 December

By R Le Quin
December 24 2002

This article covers the period from 23rd-30th December in times past and I have chosen from matches played 5, 10, 15, 30 and 45 years ago.

27/12/1997 v. London Irish at the Stoop

Before this game, we were fifth in the table having just been beaten at Leicester and desperately needed a victory over second from bottom Irish. Things looked good when Ricky Nebbett scored a try after just two minutes play which Thierry Lacroix converted. Four minutes later, Niall Woods kicked a penalty for the visitors to bring the game. We were all at sea and a break by Hogan and Woods enabled O’Shea to run in unopposed from 40 yards out for Woods to convert.

Before Lacroix levelled the match at 10-10 with his first penalty, Woods had missed two penalties and Burns a dropped goal. Woods missed another before, in injury time, Burns sent in O’Shea again. Woods converted and the visitors led 17-10 at half time. We needed a good start to the second half and Lacroix gave it to us with his second penalty success. Eight minutes later, disaster struck when Burns broke again and put Bishop in for their third try. Woods converted to make the score 24-13 and we looked to be in all sorts of trouble with just over half an hour left.

Lacroix banged over two penalties in the next ten minutes to pull us to within five points but there was no further scoring until injury time at the end of the game. We took a quick penalty 15 yards out and Huw Harries sent Rory Jenkins charging towards the line with Tulsen Tollett in support. As the initial charge was stopped, Bill Davison caught the ball and charged through to score the equalising try. Lacroix coped with the pressure to put the conversion between the posts and we had sneaked a victory 26-24 to move up one place.

Quins: Scott Stewart, Laurent Belligoi, Tulsen Tollett, Will Carling (Jason Keyter), Dan Luger, Thierry Lacroix, Huw Harries, Massimo Cuttitta (Altan Ozdemir), Tom Billups (Paul Delaney), Dan Rouse, Gareth Llewellyn, Ryan Strudwick (Adam Leach), Rory Jenkins, Laurent Cabannes and Bill Davison (c).

28/12/1992 v. Richmond at the Stoop

Our previous game to this one had been the 72-3 trouncing of Blackheath in the 3rd round of the Pilkington cup; due to the divisional matches, we didn’t play again until the visit of Richmond. We only had two first team men on show whereas the visitors were near to full strength and our start showed our strength in depth when Jeff Alexander and Richard Goodwin scored tries in the first 15 minutes. Stuart Thresher added one conversion and a penalty to put us 15-0 ahead.

Richmond came storming back at us and Lamb, Cooper and Morris all ran in tries but, as Elliot could only convert the last, their half time lead was only a couple of points. They stretched this to seven when Hutton scored another try within seconds of the restart but Thresher converted Simpson-Kent’s try fourteen minutes later and the scores were level at 22-22. Mike Wedderburn scored our fourth try on 64 minutes and after the referee had departed injured, Morris landed a penalty to leave the visitors only two points down. Five minutes from the end of the game, Osman scored for us and Thresher’s conversion gave us a nine point cushion which was just as well because Richmond weren’t finished yet. Greenwood got the game’s tenth try but it was not enough and we had won a thrilling holiday game by thirty four points to thirty.

Quins: Stuart Thresher, Russell Osman, Gavin Thompson, Jeff Alexander, Mike Wedderburn, Kent Bray, Richard Goodwin, Martin Hobley, Paul Simmonds, Simon Brown, Rob Jardine-Brown (Andy Challis), Neil Edwards (c), Karl Simpson, Luke Jones and Jerry Simpson-Kent.

28/12/1987 v. Richmond at the Stoop

Our final game of 1987 saw us field a strong side against our local rivals and a good game resulted in our tenth win of the season. We made a very quick start as Richmond came out of the block slowly. Eagle (twice) and Bell (in between the two) scored tries and Rose converted all three. We led 18-0 after only eleven minutes before the visitors got on the scoreboard with a penalty from their fly half Smith. An Everton Davis try was converted by Rose before Smith got another penalty to cut the deficit again.

Before half time, Tim Bell ran in for his second try of the game to make it 28-6 and we were well on our way. Adrian Thompson got on the list of try scorers and Rose converted before Smith put over two more penalties to take his tally to four. Rose then converted his own try before Heator scored Richmond’s first try at the end of the third quarter but the gap was still increasing. Our eighth try was the second for Davis and Rose was again successful with the conversion to take our total to 46. Five minutes from the end, Cullen scored for the visitors but their total only rose to 20.

Quins: Marcus Rose (c), Jon Eagle, Jamie Salmon, Charlie Smith, Everton Davis, Adrian Thompson, Rupert Moon, Paul Curtis, Simon Miller, Andy Mullins, Neil Edwards (Chris Sheasby), Herman van Heerden, Tim Bell, Dirk Williams and Richard Langhorn.

30/12/1972 v. London Scottish at Richmond

1972/73 had been a depressing season for Quins and after eighteen games, we had a record of W3 L15. So, for our last match of the year, we made the short journey to the Athletic Ground to play London Scottish. In the first half, Baillie score the opening try for the Scots before Cooke made a half break and put Burroughs over for our opening score which Hiller converted. Then, Burroughs broke through on his own and chipped over the last two defenders (who knocked each other over) and ran on to score unopposed. Hiller converted again and we led 12-4 at the break. We put up a fantastic rear guard action during the second half but Stevenson kicked a penalty for the Scots and Hunter narrowed the gap to a single point with their second try. The home side missed five of their six kicks at goal and wasted ample opportunities to score and we held on for a 12-11 victory to finish the year on a happy note.

Quins: Bob Hiller, Chris Forth, David A Cooke, Paul Grant, Harry Burroughs, Earle Kirton (c), John Gronow, Terry Claxton, John Stockdill, Roger Looker, Chris Barrett, Maurice Rocks, Alan Lewis, Bill Petch and Mike Thorniley-Walker.

28/12/1957 v. Richmond at the White City

Coming off the back of one of our rare victories over Newport, we went into the local derby against Richmond in good shape and we took the lead when John Simons scored a try midway through the first half. Roger Whyte made it with a crafty cross-kick (hands up all those who thought these were a new part of the game!). Bartlett converted and we had a 5-0 lead at the break. For the first ten minutes of the second half, Richmond attacked again and again but we repelled all attempts, swept up the pitch and Thompson dropped a goal to extend our lead. When Woodruff ran from half way, chipped, re-gathered and went over in the corner, we were stretching away but Richmond got their first points when Gray scored a try. Immediately, Simons scored his second try and the game was safe although the visitors had the last word with their second try from Moyle to make the final score 14-6.

Quins: John Willcox, Peter Woodruff, John Simons, Phil Davies, Terry Gathercole, Ricky Bartlett (c), Ken Jones, Geoff Vaughan, Howard Hoare, Roger Whyte, Mike Evans, John Currie, Hugh Greatwood, John Hancock and David Thompson